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Craving Companionship
By Sailynn Doyle
Local Recipe Contest Aims To Revive Family Mealtimes for Local Seniors
Lack of companionship is the biggest mealtime challenge for seniors according to research recently conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care® network. To promote having a family meal together, the local Home Instead Senior Care office in North Dartmouth is running a “Craving Companionship™ Recipe Contest.” The 1st prize winner will receive $500 in groceries. The contest runs from August 1st to September 1st, 2011 and is open to all residents in Southeastern Massachusetts.
The goal of the recipe contest is to encourage family caregivers to dig into the family recipe box to find that favorite dish, and prepare and share a meal with their senior loved one. All the recipe entries to the local contest will be also entered in a national level of the contest which closes on September 15th. The recipe contests are part of the Craving Companionship program at mealsandcompanionship.com launched to help seniors stay connected socially and eat more nutritiously.
The Craving Companionship program offers family caregivers tips and practical advice to encourage companionship and easy, healthful meals. For more details about the contest including guidelines, local and national prizes, visit homeinstead.com/673. Selected recipes and stories will be posted online as well as in the Homemade MemoriesSM Cookbook, which will be available for purchase in time for the 2011 holiday season. Proceeds will go to the non-profit Home Instead Senior Care Foundation to benefit North American seniors.
The Home Instead Senior Care office in North Dartmouth believes many seniors need help planning and preparing nutritious meals. But that’s only part of the story. So many seniors want to relive a time around the dinner table when they were sharing their lives with the people they loved most. Home Instead Senior Care network research reveals that seniors who live alone want good-tasting, nutritious food and stimulating conversation when they share home-cooked meals with family and friends.
“Who likes to eat alone? Nobody,” said Sandy Markwood, CEO of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, an expert source for the Craving Companionship program. Craving Companionship is geared to helping families support a nutritiously vulnerable population – older adults who live alone. In the United States, approximately 40% of the population age 75 and older – 6.7 million people – lives alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“We know from ‘Meals On Wheels®’ that companionship is among the most important needs of local seniors. Older adults often look forward to the delivery driver as much as the meal,” Markwood noted. “We share the Home Instead Senior Care mission to help older adults live with confidence at home for as long as possible by providing the support they need. Because when a senior is isolated, it’s indicative of bigger challenges that person could be facing.”
Two of every five seniors who live alone (44%) have at least four warning signs of poor nutritional health. According to Home Instead Senior Care network research, the most common of these warning signs and their incidence rates are: eating alone most of the time (76%), taking three or more different medications a day (71%), eating few fruits, vegetables or milk products (46%), having an illness/condition that prompted a change in diet (31%), and/or not always being physically able to shop, cook or feed themselves (25%).
Furthermore, the research confirms the value of mealtimes. An overwhelming majority of seniors (85%) say that having someone to share their meals with makes those times more satisfying for them. In addition, nearly one-half (48%) say their mealtimes are more satisfying if they have someone prepare their meals for them.
Sadly, these same seniors say that several factors can get in the way of their mealtime companionship. The most common obstacles that prevent these seniors from sharing more meals are because family/friends don’t have enough time (28 percent) or they live too far away (20%). Fifty-nine percent of seniors who live alone say they eat more nutritiously when family and friends are around and enjoy having that connection with someone, whether it’s a family caregiver or a professional CAREGiverSM.
Sailynn Doyle
At Home Instead Senior Care, we customize our services to fit your needs. We provide non-medical care to seniors and their families 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Services such as companionship, meal preparation, light housekeeping, shopping, errands, incidental transportation and personal care are just some of the most popular. All of our CAREGivers are thoroughly screened - criminal background check, driving record check, social security trace, sex offender list, and six references. We are available for free consultations 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
Call 508.984.7900 or visit www.HomeInstead.com/673 for more information.
Sailynn Doyle is the owner of Home Instead Senior Care in North Dartmouth, located at 634 State Road (Route 6), Unit A1. The North Dartmouth office serves all of Southeastern Massachusetts. They are available for free consultations 24/7. Please call 508.984.7900 or visit www.homeinstead.com/673 for more information. Each office is an independently owned and operated franchise of Home Instead, Inc., the world's largest provider of non-medical in-home care services for seniors.
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